


Three

by SoDoRoses (FairyChess)



Series: LAOFT Extras [108]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Family Fluff, M/M, Underage Drinking, once again i am the only person using these char & relationship tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:06:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,921
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24979669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FairyChess/pseuds/SoDoRoses
Summary: “If you make children happy now, you make them happy twenty years hence by the memory of it.”- Kate Douglas Wiggin
Relationships: Brain | Brian Sanders & Linda Sanders & Printer | Percy Sanders, Brain | Brian Sanders & Thomas Sanders, Heart | Harley Sander/Thomas Sanders, Linda Sanders & Thomas Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders & Thomas Sanders
Series: LAOFT Extras [108]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1365505
Comments: 19
Kudos: 367





	Three

**Author's Note:**

> takes place about 26 years after the main storyline
> 
> For the prompt:
> 
> "I think I would die for more stuff about Linda and Perce. I love their dynamic so freaking much and I would love to see all the terror the two of them would cause as they grow up with Brian standing by in exasperation." (From an anon on tumblr)
> 
> and many thanks to @trivia-goddess for beta reading!

When Thomas woke up to a loud, sudden thump, his first thought was that someone was breaking into the house.

Blinking against the darkness of his bedroom, he sat up a little and turned the thought over in his mind. It wasn’t… impossible, but not very likely. Who would come from out of town to break into his house? And the odds of someone _in_ town risking it when Thomas had the Lord of the Forest for a brother-in-law were even lower.

He rolled over on his side, and Harley made a disgruntled noise. Thomas turned back to nuzzle the side of his face and Harley settled, huffing a sigh out of his nose and blinking himself into bleary awareness.

“Sup?” he muttered.

Another loud thump, and a brief, shrill giggle that cut off abruptly.

“That,” said Thomas, relaxing.

“Time is it?” said Harley, glancing at the clock, “Oh, he’s so grounded,”

“Let’s make sure he doesn’t leave a path of destruction on his way to his bed first,” said Thomas dryly, climbing out of bed.

They made their way toward the sound, and as they got closer Thomas realized it was definitely multiple voices, not one. At the foot of the stairs, he came around the corner, huffing in amusement.

Percy was sitting on the floor, and most of the giggling was her. She had gotten better at the whole “dripping” thing over the years, but apparently drunkenness put her right back at square one. Her hair was plastered wet to her face, her skirts and pond water pooled around her on the hardwood.

Beside her, Linda was kneeling, her shushing even louder than Percy’s laughter, while Brian stood over top of them with his hands braced on Linda’s shoulders, swaying ominously.

“Hey, Bumblebee,” said Thomas, wry, “You’re up late,”

Brian, instead of having the decency to look ashamed, just dissolved into giggles right along with Percy.

“Hey, Dad,” he said, “Percy fell down,”

“B, we’re _sneaking,_ ” said Linda, “Don’t _tell them,_ ”

Harley snorted, and Thomas bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

“Don’t tell us what? That Percy fell?” said Harley, who did _not_ try to hide that he was laughing.

“Obviously,” said Linda.

“We can kinda see her, Kitty,”

Linda’s whole face screwed up in concentration. She spent several moments looking between Thomas and Harley by the stairs, and Percy on the floor, clearly thinking very hard, before she clumsily grabbed the throw blanket of the back of the couch and draped it over Percy’s head.

Linda beamed up at him, and Thomas could only see Logan’s victorious, solved-the-puzzle expression, and his heart melted a little.

“Okay, kids,” he said, “Bedtime,”

“Not grounded?” said Brian.

“Nice try,” scoffed Thomas.

“Aw, dip,” muttered Brian.

“What were you expecting, exactly?” said Thomas, crossing the room and coaxing Brian away from his precarious position using Linda as a leaning post. Harley followed, bending down to help Linda to her feet.

“For my, uh, very, very cool dads,” said Brian, wobbling, “To… let me off with a warning,”

“And why’s that?” said Harley

“Because. Um,”

Brian wrinkled his nose.

“They are… very cool dads,”

“Well, we are pretty cool,” said Thomas, “But you are _well_ past curfew, and you left without telling us where you were going-”

Percy giggled from under the blanket.

“Nuh-uh!” she said haughtily, “We left notes! You were prem- prentiv- pre-emp-”

She huffed, frustrated.

“Informed _before_ you technically asked, and the rules are to tell you where we are going,”

“What she said!” said Brian.

“Cute,” said Thomas, “That might work on your mom, Perce, but we’re human. You don’t get points here for exact-words-ing your way around the rules. Especially because that doesn’t even make sense,”

“Told you,” said Linda, flicking Percy in the ear, “You were already drunk when you showed up and you’re _terrible_ at plans when you’re drunk-”

“You didn’t come up with anything better! At least I _had_ a plan-”

“I had a plan, too!”

“Your plan was to leave _stocks_ behind like Snowmelt wouldn’t know the second he saw it that it was a _plant-_ ”

“You know,” said Brian, fond and dry, leaning forward to mutter conspiratorially with Thomas, “I always forget how much _worse_ they are with mead in their systems,”

“Consider it the universe’s punishment for sneaking out,” laughed Thomas.

“So not grounded? Because the universe already punished me?” said Brian hopefully.

“For someone so good at telling stories, you’re not talking your way out of this very well, Bumblebee,”

“Alright, Miss Kelpie, up you get,” said Harley, hauling Percy to her feet. She swayed, and Harley and Linda caught her between them before she could pitch forward.

“I don’t need _help!_ ” she said shrilly.

“Of course not,” said Harley, “You’re on the floor totally willingly,”

Wrinkling her nose, Percy stuck her tongue out at him.

“I am not that drunk,” she said disdainfully, “I walked B and Kitty home. I can go home myself now, I’m very responsible,”

“Wow,” deadpanned Harley.

“So much worse,” mumbled Brian.

“But hey,” Harley continued, “If you _don’t_ want to get comfy in the bathtub and go to sleep…”

Percy wavered, obviously tempted.

“… Fine,” she said, “I will stay to watch Kitty and B,”

“How very magnanimous of you,” said Harley in an equally pompous voice.

Harley led Percy toward the guest bath, while Thomas leaned over and took Linda’s hand as well as Brian’s. They both smelled like pond scum, and their clothes were damp in several spots – probably from falling all over each other and Percy - but Thomas didn’t feel like wrestling them into pajamas. Brian could wash his own sheets in the morning as the first stage of being super grounded.

Thomas guided them both up the stairs and into Brian’s room. They kept tripping over each other, Linda looping her arms around Brian’s neck to drag him down and give him noogies while Brian took cheap shots at her ribs and underarms and made her squeak.

Rolling his eyes, Thomas pushed open the door to Brian’s room and gestured them in.

There was, in fact, a large folded note on Brian’s neatly made bed, easy to see. Thomas picked it up, pocketing it, and Linda promptly fell down face first on the bed, snickering.

Thomas moved to try and get her feet up, but then Brian flopped on top of her. Thomas made a slightly alarmed noise, but Linda just squirmed onto her back so she could get her arms around him and started purring.

Thomas sighed. They made it so _hard_ to be a responsible parent sometimes, being stupidly adorable. Completely unfair.

“Sorry,” mumbled Brian.

“Yeah?” replied Thomas quietly, picking both the kids’ feet up and lifting them onto the bed.

“Mhm,” hummed Brian, “Shouldn’a snuck out. Felt kinda bad about it the whole time,”

 _Unfair._ Jeezy creezy.

“I’m glad you know you were in the wrong, buddy,” he said softly, “We’ll talk about it more in the morning, okay?”

“Kay,” said Brian, bumping his face in Linda’s curls like he was trying to kiss the top of her head but couldn’t quite remember how.

“You wanna get under the covers for me?”

“Nah, m’fine,” said Brian, “Sorta hot,”

Linda didn’t respond, and her purrs stuttered with the occasional soft, not-quite-snoring breath. Thomas squinted at her in the moonlight, and confirmed she was already fast asleep.

“Goodnight, Bumblebee,”

“Night, Dad,”

And just like that, Brian was out – Thomas _wished_ he’d been this easy to put to sleep as a kid.

Thomas walked back to his room, grabbing his phone off the nightstand and returning to Brian’s. He snapped a photo of the two kids in the dimness of the bedroom, but clear enough for his purposes.

**To: Berry  
[got smth of yours]**

Harley came up the stairs, stepping lightly, and Thomas turned to smile at him even as his phone chimed with a response that was surprisingly quick for the hour.

**From: Berry  
[>:(]**

Thomas snorted, covering it to keep quiet. Harley cocked his head, curious, and Thomas tilted his phone to show him just in time for another text to appear.

**From: Berry  
[There seems to be a very polite note in my daughter’s bed in lieu of the actual daughter. It smells of several aquatic plants so presumably Percy was involved. Would you like me to come get either of them?]**

“Should be fine,” Harley murmured, “Perce is out cold, she was asleep before the tub was even full. I think we can let them sleep. Also I mopped up the living room with a towel,”

He hesitated for a moment.

“Do we… need to call _Percy’s_ mom?”

“I hope not, because I haven’t the faintest idea how we would,” Thomas laughed quietly, “But you’re right, I think they’re all fine where they are. I’ll tell Logan,”

Thomas shot off the text, only for Harley to abruptly pluck the phone out of his hand. Thomas went to protest but Harley just leaned over and pressed a soft _smack_ of a kiss to his lips.

“If I don’t take it now you’ll play puzzle games or watch youtube videos until the sun comes up,” teased Harley, reaching down to lace their fingers together.

“Betrayed by my own husband,” said Thomas heatlessly.

“You caught me, I’m a scoundrel,”

The comment was very much at odds with Harley’s light, cheerful tone and the gentle bunny kiss he leaned over to give, but Thomas definitely wasn’t complaining.

Harley didn’t return the phone to him, just let go of Thomas long enough to plug it in once they got back in their room, before turning and grabbing him again to pull him into bed with a soft smile.

“B apologized,” murmured Thomas, getting comfortable against Harley’s chest as they burrowed together under the covers, “You should have seen it. He kinda looked like he might cry,”

“He’s a good kid,” said Harley, and Thomas could feel him smiling against his hair, “We make great babies,”

Thomas laughed, ignoring the very faint prickle in his throat.

“Not much of a baby, anymore,” he said, a little thick, “Gosh. He’s so big, Lee. He’s taller than Linny now and they’re sneaking out to drink mead. Wasn’t he like, _just_ in kindergarten?”

Harley groaned, laughing a little.

“Don’t remind me,” he said, “I feel so old. I’m gonna put a brick on his head,”

Chuckling, Thomas nosed teasingly at Harley’s neck, making him squirm a little. Harley poked him, giggling, and Thomas settled down.

“We’d better sleep,” Harley continued, “Gotta be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to properly lecture three hungover teenagers,”

“Oh, gosh,” groaned Thomas, “Nope, two. I am not even _trying_ lecturing Percy, nightmare scenario,”

“We’ll foist her off on Logan – she thinks ‘Snowmelt’ hung the moon,”

“Good point,” said Thomas, “Though that only works if she didn’t get the idea from her _other_ Green Man role model,”

“Well, _someone_ gave them the mead, and it was either him or Dean-”

“Bold of you to assume Bell didn’t do it,”

“Bell definitely would have walked them home, though,” said Harley, ducking so his lips brushed Thomas’s forehead as he spoke.

“Also a good point,”

Humming, Harley pursed his lips a little, a barely-kiss that made Thomas’s heart give a little tremble of fondness.

“Night,” he murmured.

“Night, T,”

And Thomas had to admit, that even with being woken up at three AM and knowing he had to ground his kid in the morning, he found that in that moment, he was perfectly content.

**Author's Note:**

> you can also find me over on [tumblr](tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors.tumblr.com) or in the [laoft discord!](https://discord.gg/EmZzkrw)


End file.
